Patrick van Rensburg

Patrick van Rensburg was born in Durban in December 1931. His parents separated when he was young and he was raised by his grandmother. She was an Afrikaner woman who was married to Lagesse, a Frenchman, who hailed from Mauritius. His grandmother was placed in a concentration camp by the English during the Anglo-Boer war. This grandmother accepted the Roman Catholic faith of her husband, Patrick was brought up as a Catholic and they spoke English in the home. As a child Patrick was known by the surname Lagesse.

It was only in his later teen years that it dawned upon him that he was and Afrikaner. After his studies he joined the civil service and started to appreciate the cause of the Afrikaner, who seemed to be confronted by the whole world. He served as South African Vice-Consul in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo from February 1956 until he resigned his post in May 1957, in protest against the apartheid policies of the South African government. One of the triggers were reading the book by Chester Boules, Africa's challenge to America, in it he read the following description of apartheid, "Racial prejudice sanctified by religion and philosophy, formalized by law and institionalize in the mores of the nation." He subsequently joined the Liberal Party of South Africa, and worked with Patrick Duncan. In September 1958 Van Rensburg became the organizing secretary of the Liberal Party in Transvaal. His Afrikaans surname added to the news value of his break with the Apartheid government. On 1st June Albert Luthuli was banned for five years under the Suppression of Communism Act. Van Rensburg then suggested they organise a protest meeting at the steps of Johannesburg Library with himself, Jack Unterhalter and Jack Lewsen as speakers. Van Rensburg's turn in being the Liberal party secretary came to an end at the end of June. On 11th June Patrick van Rensburg and guest speak Robert Resha of the ANC was to address some invited Afrikaner students whom they hoped would be introduced with Liberalism. Van Rensburg moved to Britain in mid-1959 and became the "first director" of the campaign to boycott South African goods in Britain and the Netherlands which preceded the Anti-Apartheid Movement. The first edition of Boycott News carried the headline 'A Direct Appeal From South Africa'. In November 1959 Patrick van Rensburg had written to Chief Lutuli asking him to send a statement calling 'freshly and clearly' for a boycott. The South African Liberal Party had been split on the issue, but in November the Party's National Committee passed a resolution approving the boycott 'both here and overseas, as a legitimate political weapon'. So the message carried in Boycott News was signed jointly by Chief Lutuli and Dr G. M. Naicker, Presidents of the African and Indian Congresses and by Peter Brown, National Chairman of South Africa's Liberal Party. It said that an economic boycott was one way in which the world at large could 'bring home to the South African authorities that they must either mend their ways or suffer for them'. He called for boycotts early January 1960. There was outraged back in South Africa amongst Afrikaners, Die Vaderland called him a 'slangmens' - a 'snake-person', they also referred to him as the 'aarts Liberalis' (arch Liberalist). The Liberal Party back in South Africa were thrown in turmoil not knowing whether to support Van Rensburg's call for boycott or not. Patrick wrote in November 1959 to Chief Lutuli asking him to send a statement calling 'freshly and clearly' for a boycott http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/aam/aam_origins.html Returning to South Africa his passport was confiscated and after the Sharpeville shootings he was forced to flee the country. On 30 March 1960 he fled South Africa and found political asylum in Swaziland. From there he went to Bechuanaland and the Ghanian government flew him in September 1960 to Accra.

https://geocities.restorativland.org/Athens/Atlantis/4364/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_van_Rensburg